What do you need to get a Carnegie Scholarship?

What kind of stats do you need? If anyone here got one and could share their stats that’d be very helpful.

My S is at CMU- senior this year. Did not receive a scholarship with this profile- National Hispanic Scholar, Commended Scholar, SAT: CR 800, M 700, WR 740 (only SAT sitting),extensive theater and computer science extracurriculars but lower GPA and ranking. It was a reach and he applied ED. I think CMU continues to be very selective with the scholarships and if it’s a reach for an applicant then they are unlikely to get a scholarship. But if they are a high stats student all the way around, it’s a possibility.

We know one student in my son’s cohort that went to another high school and got a scholarship. He was Asian, National Merit Finalist and very high stats including GPA and rank. He got a $10,000 scholarship. Barely enough to make a dent in a $60,000 yearly bill.

I would go to their website and look over the information on scholarships. They added a new scholarship recently.

It would certainly help if you are URM with low income I think. My son went to a very competitive magnet school in Tx and the other student went to a solid but not super competitive school. Neither of the families needed financial aid. The other student has 2 college professors as parents. My son has 2 graduate degreed professionals. I basically work and hand over the paycheck to his school. If you have any more questions, let me know.

@goingnutsmom Thanks for all the info! I actually seem to have similar stats to your son lol (Hispanic, 2240 SAT, Texas magnet school, national hispanic and commended) so it looks like my odds aren’t the greatest for a scholarship. Do you know his GPA/ class rank? Mines 25/650 and around a 96 W so I wonder how high of a GPA you need

So when my son went to the public magnet, the way they did the GPA was totally different than what it is now. I think it put him at a disadvantage because it looked low compared to other applicants. His cumulative was 3.5 at ED and 3.6 at around midterm ( no rounding). Cumulative weighted means all classes out of 5.0 although highest you could go was a 4.8 but were told to put it in weighted 5.0 scale.

It actually doesn’t matter- CMU has their own way of doing GPA and does not include freshman year which turned out to be a huge advantage for him.

Rank was very low- like 137 out of 186. Very competitive magnet. I really don’t know how he got in except that CFA has portfolio review which he submitted and participated on campus. Showed lots of interest.

CMU website says highest financial need based and merit will go to the ED round of applicants. But ED is binding.

Remember, a Carnegie Scholarship is usually a fairly small sum of money compared to the total cost of attendance. Don’t bet on it helping much. For example, mine was <$500 per semester… Not exactly great…
But since you’re asking for stats, sophomore through first semester senior grades were all As, SAT ~2300, RD.

CMU gave out 92 Presidential Scholarships this year. Not sure what it means, although, I recollect they go between $100 and 17.5K per year.

What about using musical talent to win money at CMU? Is that possible? My son is a solid All State violist, but wants to major in EECS. He attended CMU this summer, studied CS and played viola in the three week orchestra and did well. Is there a way to win money if he plays viola in CMU orchestra but studies EECS?

^ Good question about music scholarships but I don’t know the answer. My advise is to look at CMU’s scholarships and see if that would be a possibility. CMU is kind of funny about the scholarship money, basically emphasizing that they reserve it for students that they really, really want. They spell it out on their website. Something like- we reserve scholarship funds for the highly selected few who also may not qualify for financial aid. It’s hit or miss. Know families whose kids got nothing, others whose kids got something but nothing huge though, and others whose kids got really good financial packages.

My S is CFA- ID and hopefully graduating next year. Will be do glad not to pay that exorbitant tuition bill.

CMU will tell you up front they are not big on merit-based aid. @goingnutsmon - My D is a National Hispanic Scholar, so I called CMU and asked them if they had scholarships for this as a lot of other schools do (as I am sure you are well aware). Their answer was “No” because everybody who applies there is a designated merit scholar of some sort. What they will do for certain degrees, after they have sent your FA Award letter, is look at competitive offers from similar PRIVATE schools and if they can, add some merit money to the award.

The new Presidential Scholarships is like a black hole because they had no information on the criteria on the web site for this year. What I have learned from a phone call is that it is awarded based on a combination of merit and need at the time the applicant is evaluated. They did not provide any information on dollar amounts awarded.

My D, a junior at CMU this year, is a Carnegie Scholar and was awarded a very nice amount of money when she was a freshman. I won’t say the amount, but it was substantial.

As for your question @Coloradomama about getting scholarship money for music when you aren’t a music major in CFA: not gonna happen unfortunately. They reserve that money for the highly talented music kids that are majoring in music.

My child received one of the new Presidential Scholarships, with 35 ACT, 780 Math2, and SAT scores all parts in the 700s, though I don’t remember exactly what they were. She was a straight A HS student, every course, all 4 years of high school, at a well regarded public high school. 3 APs as junior, 6 APs as senior. Applied/enrolled in Engineering (not computers). None of her extracurriculars were science-related; she is a very well-rounded student. Presidential Scholarship made cost of CMU feasible to a family that didn’t qualify for need-based aid, but full price was not really affordable, given long term goals of other children to send through college, etc.

Thx for the info on Presidential scholarships. I had seen them listed on their brochure. CMU’s scholarship awards do not seem transparent and you just never know.

^ Did you still have to fill out the CSS form? I believe their info says that you can be awarded the presidential but then you have to fill out the CSS before they grant it. Did they let you know a specific amount before the CSS ?

We filled out FAFSA and CSS and turned them in by their standard due dates. Notification came at the standard time financial aid awards were given. I don’t think we were even aware of the existence of this category of scholarships when she applied; this was a reach school both academically and financially, so both were a very pleasant surprise.

Presidential Scholarships are new this year at CMU thanks to an initiative by President Suresh. Additionally, CMU is trying to compete for top notch kids with other very well endowed universities and sometimes miss out on these kids because CMU does not have near the endowment of its peer institutions. CMU is not very generous with aid. They try, but for some families, it is just plain unaffordable. President Suresh is well aware of this and the university is working hard to increase the endowment and get alumni engaged etc. but generally speaking, giving among recent grads is very low. CMU is the type of school that kids appreciate going to when they make the big bucks, but when they are in the moment, it can be a miserable place. CMU is a job creating university, which is why kids put up with the stress.

And yes, you still have to fill out CSS for Carnegie Mellon.